With the delta variant making up over 93% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. at the end of July 2021, questions arise about how to stay protected against evolving forms of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Here, pediatrician and infectious disease specialist Dr. Lilly Cheng Immergluck of Morehouse School of Medicine answers some common questions about variants and what you can do to best protect yourself.
1. What Are Variants and How Do They Emerge?
Viruses mutate over time to adapt to their environment and improve their survival. Over the course of the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has mutated enough to change both its ability to spread through the population and its ability to infect people.
These new strains are called variants. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently classifies variants into three categories, listed in order of least to most concerning:
